Twitter Adds Email Security to Ward Off Cybercriminals (Mashable)
To cut down on fake email scams and ploys to steal your passwords, Twitter has added an email authentication security measure to prevent malicious attacks on user accounts. The company announced on Thursday it has started using a new technology, DMARC, which aims to prevent cybercriminals from sending emails to users with a fake Twitter.com address. AllTwitter DMARC is a relatively new security protocol created by a group of organizations to help reduce the potential for email-based abuse. Without getting too technical, DMARC solves a couple of long-standing operational, deployment and reporting issues related to email authentication protocols. It builds on established authentication protocols (DKIM and SPF) to give email providers a way to block email from forged domains popping up in inboxes. VentureBeat It’s the same technology that Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and PayPal use to limit email fraud. “There’s no shortage of bad actors sending emails that appear to come from a Twitter.com address in order to trick you into giving away key details about your Twitter account, or other personal information,” Twitter “postmaster” Josh Aberant posted Thursday on the company’s blog. TechCrunch Twitter says it started using the DMARC tech earlier this month, which means it should be up and running already. But the timing of this announcement likely has more to do with publicizing Twitter’s attempts to increase security around the service in the wake of a couple notable hacks in recent days. The Next Web Phishing is an extremely common method of harvesting user passwords which can then be used to access Twitter accounts or, if users are silly enough to do so, email accounts that share the same password. As Twitter has grown in size and popularity, it has become the target of ever increasing phishing attempts and account “hackings.”

Facebook Blocks Access to NBC.com After Reports Site is Infected (Reuters)
Facebook has blocked users from accessing the NBC.com website following reports that the site is infected with a computer virus. Facebook users were told “This link has been reported as abusive” on Thursday when they attempted to access the NBC.com website. AllThingsD “We will take action on Facebook when we observe malicious behavior on domains and sub-domains that are being shared; however, we don’t comment on specific sites,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD. The news comes on the heels of a string of highly publicized hacking attacks on popular websites and companies, including Facebook, Apple and Twitter. CNET The network confirmed the hack, adding that no user information was compromised. Other companies, like Bitly and Google, are taking precautions after the breach by warning users before they enter NBC.com that there might be a problem with security.

Celebrities Do Read Your Tweets, Say Super Fans and Stars (SocialTimes)
At a Social Media Week panel at Viacom headquarters, reality stars and super fans gathered to discuss the crumbling divide between celebrities and the public. The biggest takeaway was that fans can tell the difference between stars who manage their own accounts and those who hire someone else to do it for them.

Native Instagram App is Not Coming to BlackBerry 10 (AllThingsD)
Sources close to Instagram tell AllThingsD that a native version of the photo-sharing application is not headed to BlackBerry 10 — not anytime soon, at least. “There will be no [native] Instagram for BB10 for now,” said one. “Frankly, I’m not sure there will ever be.”

An Idea for Facebook’s Auto-Play Video Ads on Mobile: Tilt to View (AllFacebook)
One video-animation firm thinks that there’s a way that Facebook can serve video ads on mobile devices without disrupting the user experience. Derek Merdinyan, founder of Video Igniter, thinks that a photo-based ad unit where users turn the phone landscape-style to view a video could be a way for Facebook to make video ads work somewhat peacefully.

Man Faces 18 Months in Jail Over Twitter Parody (The Daily Dot)
A man in Chile is facing 18 months in jail after a businessman accused him of identity theft over Twitter parody accounts. Rodrigo Ferrari Prieto is accused of being behind three now inactive accounts that mocked Chilean business mogul Andrónico Luksic and his family, according to Global Voices.

Apple Filed Patent for Flexible Wrist Display (The New York Times/Bits Blog)
On Thursday, the Apple technology blog Apple Insider discovered that Apple filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in August 2011 for a flexible watchlike device that could wrap around someone’s wrist using a fully bendable display. The blog likens the watch to “the slap bracelet, also called the slap wrap.”

Nielsen, Billboard Shift Their Tracking to Account for Cord Cutters (paidContent)
For the first time, Nielsen will begin tracking the habits of viewers who watch TV over broadband. And in another example of online media consumption shaking up traditional tracking methods, Billboard will begin including YouTube music video views in its charts.

Why Startups are Turning to Dev Bootcamp for Fresh Developer Talent (SocialTimes)
Dev Bootcamp, an intense training program that teaches students programming skills and prepares them for the workplace as Ruby On Rails developers in just nine weeks, has become one of the hottest breeding grounds for fresh developer talent, with social media startups like Twitter, TopHatter, Chefs Feed, Social Chorus, Kaily Kos, Exec and others snatching up graduates or, as the program calls them, “Boots.” Just what is it that makes these “Boots” so desirable? We spoke to a couple of startups, and a couple of Dev Bootcamp grads, to find out.

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